With the pandemic continuing to affect our way of life, many roles have started to move online. This includes home tuition. Teaching tuition online with tutees on the other end of the screen can be daunting for some since this is not common for many. However, there is plenty of good online tools tutor can employ to teach technical subjects like mathematics. We share with you some tips to teach mathematics effectively online!
- Tools to visualise mathematics problems
Math tutors have problems trying to visualize the problem to their students even in physical settings. To this, remote tuition comes with numerous benefits and one of them is the ability to employ tools to help students visualize the mathematics problems! This significantly raises the level of engagement with students. We know how remote tuition might result in the student losing focus and hence it is important to make use of different tools in order to keep the student focus. A quick google search will result in many tools that cater to different age groups that can help you teach maths easier!
- Interesting ways to promote interaction
Remote tuition might mean that teachers now have a hard time trying to get replies from their students since there is a loss of physical presence. However, there are a few ways to mitigate this problem. Most video calls apps allow for private communication during the live session. Tutors should make it a point to encourage students to ask questions this way should they feel shy about asking their questions right out in class.
The second way is through anonymous polls. Questions can be flashed on the screen with a few choices of answers. Students can select what they think is the correct answer through an anonymous poll. This way, the student will not feel at risk of being embarrassed for getting the question wrong, and tutors will be able to assess the level of understanding the general class has on a particular topic.
- Make use of the breakout room function to encourage collaborative problem solving
During physical classes, it is not easy to have separate engagement with students since everyone is in a single classroom setting. However, with online apps like zoom, tutors can split the class into smaller groups. This can help to promote collaborative problem solving amongst the student since now two or three students can work on a mathematics problem together. Having a smaller group now also allows the tutor to observe who is stronger in which topic, or vice versa.
- Recordings of tuition sessions
Recording tuitions sessions will benefit students greatly since they can easily refer back to these recordings whenever they have doubts about something that was going through during the lesson.
Conclusion
We think remote tuition is probably here to stay for the next few years given the uncertainties ahead. And as tutors, we should employ tools that will help us teach effectively while bringing the most benefits to our students.
